Cranley: 'I fear for the future of our county'

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley(Photo: The Enquirer/Madison Schmidt, The Enquirer/Madison Schmidt)

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley called the county's sales tax plan to fix only Union Terminal "half baked" and "half cocked" and said: "I fear for the future of our county."

In an impromptu interview on the subject, Cranley, a Democrat, criticized Republican Hamilton County Commissioners Greg Hartmann and Chris Monzel for ignoring recommendations of the Cultural Facilities Task Force, a group of business leaders, engineers and construction experts headed by former Procter & Gamble Co. chief executive Bob McDonald, now U.S. Veteran Affairs secretary.

It recommended a 14-year, quarter-cent sales tax to help pay for renovations at Union Terminal and Music Hall. Both buildings are owned by the city but are considered regional assets.

The county commission, in a 2-1 vote last week, approved putting a 5-year, quarter-cent sales tax to fix only Union Terminal on the November ballot. Hartmann and Monzel outvoted Democrat Todd Portune, who preferred the plan to fix both buildings.

"I think it's a sad day for our county that the collective wisdom of the current head of the VA and the former CEO of Procter & Gamble is just discarded for a plan with no details at the last minute," Cranley said.

Hartmann called Cranley's comments a complete "overstatement" and theorized Cranley is "frustrated we didn't turn Music Hall into a county liability instead of a city liability."

Hartmann said he is convinced a sales tax that included Music Hall would never have passed. There's no available polling data that would suggest that; he said he based his conclusion on conversations with county residents.

"I would like to move on to deal with an important question for the public, and that is letting the Cincinnati Museum Center continue to function as a museum."

Cranley, with so few details about how the plan will work, is urging people to to vote no. An even better option, he said: Take it off the ballot.

"I think it is a sad day for our community when Bob McDonald ... and all these folks who put in all this time and energy at the request of the county are discarded for a half cocked, half baked plan that has huge financial holes in it with nobody running the campaign," Cranley said. "I don't know how Hartmann and Monzel have earned the right to discard the wisdom, but I know Procter & Gamble has earned some deference. The deference is merely to give the voters the final say.... I think they earned the right to let the voters decide."

Cranley called the sales tax the "Hartmann/Monzel tax."

"I fear for the future of our county when the project can be hijacked – I am not even sure by who – nobody was pushing the plan they put forward," Cranley said. "They have a lot of explaining to do."

Cranley said he'll continue to look for fixes for Music Hall, hopefully in conjunction with the task force. ■